belfastguzzi

Eggnog, this could be the one for you:

1) You heard me 2) I was only refering to whisky, not to whiskey. 3)

I'm gonna run it on Scotch Whisky. Then the water can only improve matters.

Synchronicity or what! The newspaper in the photo in this thread has an ad for – a Volvo 850! I just have to hoke through the bin, find the paper, a bunch of old tenners...

Here, an Aprillia and Triumph dealer would be one of the bigger Ohlins guys. You might find other specialists who only do suspension or who do racing/performance work. I don't think that the Guzzi dealers would necessarily be the best place to go.

well, the million dollar Formula 1 roadshow has messed up big time in the USA. Hope you didn't buy a ticket.

sounds dangerous – won't you get tempted to shoot the bike?

I would prefer to catch, or lose, the stuff before it gets to the frame. If I was to do something with the return from the frame, I would be tempted to open the pipe and close the sump and just not return anything. The reality is that most of my weekly journeys will be short ones, so the oil is not going to get a good roasting. Although I didn't consider the issue in great detail, I had previously thought that the air-cooled motor would heat up quicker than a water cooled and so be better for short journeys. I can't be the only one who does short 4 to 5 mile journeys – or am I? I wonder if any of the modern car engine technology has tackled this issue of constant short cycles where the engine & oil rarely gets up to temperature?

yes there was plenty of emulsion around the pick-up. I suppose it makes a bit of a nonsense of the 'what oil, exactly, should I use?' concern. Make mine a capuccino. Actually I prefer espresso. Good to hear that there is only a coating of oil in your frame. So cutting out repeated short journeys is the real answer: though I'll still experiment with the plumbing routing. Do Gaggia do aftermarket parts?

Yep. Opening the vent to atmosphere may make the problem worse rather than better. I just wonder if, as well as sucking damp air in when bike cools, will it let the moisture out again? I'll look out for that PCV valve. You're probably right, in that the only real solution is to use a CZ 125 for going to work – or better, a pushbike. Those big cars that are only doing 4 or 5 mile trips, used for school drops and shopping, must be getting wrecked inside.

Hi John that's what I've done. The vent that I've described above is the one that goes to the airbox. There are two ways that the oil/water vapour & liquid can go: out to the airbox and back down to the sump. I know that oil mist does go to the airbox, but I'm hoping that mostly water vapour goes there to recirculate back into the engine and so taking this pipe out of the system will let water out, rather than oil. We'll see.

Maybe another option is to put a drain into the spine where the water collects, so that there is not so much returned to the sump?

Sorry Ratchet, the oil's in. It must sit close to the sump pan. It is surprising that a surge can move so much oil back and away from the pick-up. I think that the end of the filter also sits close to the bottom of the sump. This could be checked through the access cover. The pick-up looks like it sits lower than the filter. The bottom of the pick-up is castleated – I presume because it sits close to the pan and the gaps let the oil through. On first oil change I found that my castleations were broken – careless assembly / handling at the factory?

ok, sorry these pictures are a bit disgusting. They show the water - emulsion that returns to the sump oil: The pipes and the spine frame are thickly coated with creamy emulsion. In the bottom of the spine there is a pool of water that can be seen through the outlet that feeds this water into the sump oil. Yuk. It was hard to get a photo. You can see the line of the top of the water. Angles are funny because the bike is leant over. In the jug is some of this water extracted from the spine. Now you know where to find this, no need to carry a drinks flask in future. Just remove the banjo bolt in front of the tank and drop in a few spoons of coffee powder or instant soup. Is this system really necessary? Why not disconnect the breather where it enters the spine and let the water vapour vent to atmosphere instead of recirculating. Is there too much oil being vented for this to be a reasonable proposition? Is there a reason the vent system has to be closed (apart from environmental considerations)? Sometimes I have disconnected car breathers instead of having them recirculate, particularly when a core plug went in the Land Rover engine (– until I repaired it). I collected the condensed vapour in a bottle. It was basically all water, I don't remember much or any oil. As a first step, I have vented the outet pipe from top of frame to atmosphere and closed off the airbox feed. I'll see if any / much oil shows out of this top vent and how much water is expelled. The next step would be to rearrange that engine case breather, before it gets to the spine frame. (Water in the steel frame can't be good thing anyway.) Any good reason not to do this? Pete? Rubber chicken?

BTW, here are some pics that show the relationship between dipstick max/min levels and the oil pick-up and this is a bit of the spinning stuff above the oil. A big bit.

Day to day journeys are very short – that's why it's a 'losing battle'. But this is after 830 miles of long, hot running last weekend. If the water was allowed out, would the longer journeys not clean the oil up a bit?

I've drained the oil and dropped the sump. Gathered as much of the used oil as possible, including from filter. There was a 2 litres amount collected. The motor takes 3.5L. 3L plus filled filter brought the level to top of dipstick marker, without spinning the motor and priming the system again. I don't know how much of the old oil was left in the system, but it looks like around 1L may have disappeared, perhaps a good bit of that in recent fast run to Erin Rally and back. That seems a lot. This is all a very inaccurate, 'rough and ready' assesment, but I think that the lesson is to measure oil level accurately and keep topped up, particularly during long runs. When changing oil, I always drop the sump because I like to clean out the horrid emulsion. This is a losing battle of course – and maybe the stuff does no harm – but I always hate the idea of water in the oil system. Why keep recirculating it? I feel a new thread coming on.

I'm hooked. Same time, same place on the dial tomorrow?

There were plenty of T3s/Californias V7 yummy Beauty or beast? Beauty or beast? and a V.11 at last Link to other pics here Slideshow pics may be slow to load on dial-up

Nice road, nice country, nice sky and a bike Yep, nice road Link to other pics here Slideshow pics may be slow to load on dial-up

The best part of this bike? It's a Moto Guzzi – and it's red When it starts humming, the clocks above start spinning Link to other pics here Slideshow pics may be slow to load on dial-up

Not so many pictures. I have looked and the pictures that I posted have disappeared again

Lots of info & more pics in the Quiz Forum

It's not so much the oil consumption, as what the oil does / where it goes when in the engine and particularly the sump (under particular circumstances?). It looks like the low oil pressure problem is widespread.

Here's our very own candyman. Maybe tomorrow night I'll get pics from Erin uploaded and add a link here